Based on describing the beauty of
JNSX and expounding the problems during the protection and renewal of it, this
paper raises a new way called color protection and makes a generative design by
the use of computer.

2.Beauty of JNSX

JNSX, which includes Shaoxing,
Zhouzhuang, Tongli and so on, is the whole region which is located in the south
of the lower reaches of the Changjiang River, China. There are so many rivers
in this region that almost every building is close to the riverbank. The walls
of folk houses are washed white, and the tiles are dark. The region has a very
long history. Made by the traditional idea “Man is an integral part of nature”,
it has been an ideal residential district all along. Owning the unique natural
landscape, living characteristic and local culture, JNSX is the excellent
historic and cultural heritage. Including architects, people have been
interested in it all the times. The art works that take JNSX as their themes,
affect people with their powerful appeal.

In the sun, the JNSX is brilliant
and colorful. White-washed walls and dark tiles, some mosses covering the foot
of walls, chestnut doors and windows opening or closing, green weeping willows
lined along the riverbank with strings of red lantern in it, bright yellow
wooden boats, the boat-women in indigo, all of this compose the specific
classic picture ofJNSX, reflect its
distinctive regional cultural appearance.

3. Problems nowadays

As time goes on, the folk houses and facilities in JNSX are aging
unavoidably. Recently, the economic ofJNSX has developed rapidly. The amounts of constructions have been
increasing year by year. On this background, the protection and development of
JNSX become one of the hottest topics in Chinese architecture circles. The
dispute around being similar in form or in spirit has produced little result.
Although the theory which prefer being similar in spirit gets the upper hand,
the buildings which prefers being similar in form are constantly emerging. They
just remain to imitate the symbol of folk houses. It makes the new buildings as
fake antique, not embodying the time’s flavor. Even more, some buildings are
not designed carefully. Their styles and colors are in disorder, which
seriously impair the space quality of JNSX, and can not continue the
traditional features ofJNSX. All of
that make it very grim to protect the features of it.

The culture of a region, is the result of historic sediment which has
included its long inherited spirits and qualities. With time developing, we can
not write off the traces of history, but to continue the culture and blend it
into the times. The protection and renewals of JNSX should be helpful to people
to read and understand it easier and clearer, to weed out the old to bring
forth the new of culture values.

Therefore, under the new circumstances, it is very necessary to jump out
of the convention, which only study the architectural entity. Through finding
some other way, we try to continue the architectural contexts, not just to
follow it.

4. Importance of colors

There is a kind of theory called “color theory of seven seconds”. It
indicates the importance of color to impress people. Unique color using can
stimulate people’s visual sense and feeling. By that, people can be impressed
deeply only in seven seconds.

The French scientist Jean Philippt Lenclos advanced the “color
geography” theory. He thinks there is a certain relation between the region and
color. The different geographical conditions create different regional color.
It has been confirmed in such cities as red Siena, gray Paris, gold Venice,
etc.

In China, there are very distinctive regional characteristics in JNSX.
During a period of considerable length, the form of JNSX is very stable. Living
in it for a long time, people have got a comprehensive image, about it, that
can make them be aware of its intrinsic meaning. Besides the architectural
entity, the color ofJNSX is also
important to strengthen people’s image of JNSX.

The color is a very important part of JNSX to form its glamour. There is
a contrast between white wall and dark tile, a well-blended color between the
rivers and the sky. Due to its rivers network, white wall and dark tile, and
wooden colors, JNSX possesses its distinctive regional characteristics. Its
hues, brightness and the color compositions, all of this can carry people back
to the old times of JNSX. To develop it does not care about its form or
structure, but to strengthen a kind of spirit, a atmosphere.

Compared to the entity, the color is a different manifestations, which
has a broader scope. It can not be described accurately by words, but more
helpful to express a feeling, to look for a eternal spirit. To colors, they do
not care about the lifelike details, but the general visual feelings. They show
people more an image than an architectural form. To do so makes it be a higher
level.

In modern cities, there are so many buildings. It is beyond people’s
ability to distinguish between the building’s styles and their colors. Those
cultural spirits which hid in the building’s colors have elapsed during the
course of industrialization. As a result, to study the regional color does not
only promote the pluralism of culture, but also be useful to continue the
internal regional spirits.

The culture of JNSX is a complex system. We should broaden our horizons
to understand its inherent law. As colors being an essential factor, to study
it has active practical significance in the protection and renewal of JNSX.

Based on this idea, the author strives to free from the simple rigid
imitation of exterior during the course of traditional area protection. Through
refining all sorts of color of JNSX, studying their distributions by the
computer, I hope to provide a new view for it, and present a new water town’s
image of today. I call it as “color protection”.

5. How to
do this research

The research is divided into two parts. One is color collection. Another
is refining and processing. The colors are from the buildings, tiles, landscape
facilities, and environment, which includes the sky, rivers, bridges and so on.

1.the
collection of JNSX’s photoes.

2.to
narrow the range of colors by the use of the software Photoshop -

3.use
the software Photoshop→magic(make the tolerance as 20) →select
similar color→to form many pictures and calculate the area of each
picture(there is only single hue in it), then convert it into scale of the
whole picture

4.to
make a program, make the color block realigning at random→form many
abstract picture, the image of JNSX